Evening and Morning
By Charles
Haddon Spurgeon
May 15
Morning
"All that believe are justified."—Acts 13:39.
The believer in Christ
receives a present justification. Faith does not produce this fruit by-and-by,
but now. So far as justification is the result of faith, it is given to
the soul in the moment when it closes with Christ, and accepts Him as its all in all. Are they who stand before the throne of God
justified now?—so are we, as truly and as
clearly justified as they who walk in white and sing melodious praises to
celestial harps. The thief upon the cross was justified the moment that he
turned the eye of faith to Jesus; and Paul, the aged, after years of service,
was not more justified than was the thief with no service at all. We are to-day accepted in the Beloved, to-day
absolved from sin, to-day acquitted at the bar of God. Oh! soul-transporting thought! There are some clusters of Eshcol's vine which we shall not
be able to gather till we enter heaven; but this is a bough which runneth over the wall. This is not as the corn of the land,
which we can never eat till we cross the Jordan; but this is part of the manna
in the wilderness, a portion of our daily nutriment with which God supplies us
in our journeying to and fro. We are now—even now pardoned;
even now are our sins put away; even now we stand in the sight of God
accepted, as though we had never been guilty. "There is therefore now
no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." There is not a sin in
the Book of God, even now, against one of His people. Who dareth
to lay anything to their charge? There is neither
speck, nor spot, nor wrinkle, nor any such thing remaining upon any one
believer in the matter of justification in the sight of the Judge of all the
earth. Let present privilege awaken us to present duty, and now, while life
lasts, let us spend and be spent for our sweet Lord Jesus.
Evening
"Made perfect."—Hebrews 12:23.
Recollect that there are
two kinds of perfection which the Christian needs—the perfection of
justification in the person of Jesus, and the perfection of sanctification
wrought in him by the Holy Spirit. At present, corruption yet remains even in
the breasts of the regenerate—experience soon teaches us this. Within us
are still lusts and evil imaginations. But I rejoice to know that the day is
coming when God shall finish the work which He has begun; and He shall present
my soul, not only perfect in Christ, but perfect through the Spirit, without
spot or blemish, or any such thing. Can it be true that this poor sinful heart
of mine is to become holy even as God is holy? Can it be that this spirit,
which often cries, "O wretched man that I am! who
shall deliver me from the body of this sin and death?" shall get rid of
sin and death—that I shall have no evil things to vex my ears, and no
unholy thoughts to disturb my peace? Oh, happy hour! may
it be hastened! When I cross the Jordan, the work of sanctification will be
finished; but not till that moment shall I even claim perfection in myself.
Then my spirit shall have its last baptism in the Holy Spirit's fire. Methinks
I long to die to receive that last and final purification which shall usher me
into heaven. Not an angel more pure than I shall be, for I shall be able to
say, in a double sense, "I am clean," through Jesus' blood, and through
the Spirit's work. Oh, how should we extol the power of the Holy Ghost in thus
making us fit to stand before our Father in heaven! Yet let not the hope of
perfection hereafter make us content with imperfection now. If it does this,
our hope cannot be genuine; for a good hope is a purifying thing, even now. The
work of grace must be abiding in us now or it cannot be perfected
then. Let us pray to "be filled with the Spirit," that we may
bring forth increasingly the fruits of righteousness.